Illuminating device for telephones



@ct. 8, 1940. w, c gWALLEY r AL 2,21%242 ILLUMINATING DEVICE FORTELEPHONES Filed April 6, 1938 2 Sheehs-Sheet l Winn 54 fig 2 29" Z5 Z140 2 INVENTOR5 w. s. SWALLEY m" AL, ILLUMINATING DEVICE FOR TELEPHONEIEFiled April 6, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 4 INVENTORJ Mum/4 6. 51449446?ATTORNEY 5 Patented Oct. 8, 1940 UNITED STATES ILLUMINATING DEVICE FORTELEPHONES William O, Swalley and Arthur J. Lichtinger,

Cleveland, Ohio, assignors to The Dialite Company, Cleveland, Ohio, acorporation of Ohio Application April 6, 1938, Serial No. 200,453

2 Claims.

This invention relates to devices for illuminating telephones and moreparticularly for illuminating the calling device or dial unit oftelephones.

Various telephone illuminating devices have been proposed or constructedheretofore, but none of those devices which have come to our attentionhave gained popular favor because of various disadvantages and thedisapproval of the telephone companies who own and service most of thetelephones in public use. In general, these prior illuminating deviceswere intended to be attached to the telephone instrument in one way oranother and devices of this character are usually disapproved by thetelephone companies because of the likelihood of damage to the telephoneinstruments and the likelihood of interference withthe rendering ofeflicient telephone service. As will appear more fully hereinafter, ourinvention provides an improved telephone illuminating device ofattractive and economical construction and which overcomes thedisadvantages of such prior illuminating devices.

It may, therefore, be said to be an object of our invention to providean illuminating device for telephones which is of attractive andeconomical construction and which during use is not connected with thetelephone other than by the telephone resting thereon.

Another object of our invention is to provide an improved illuminatingdevice for dial telephones in which a generally flat or tray-likestructure is adapted to rest upon a supporting surface and to receivethe telephone thereon, and

- in which such structure has a portion projectin beyond the base of thetelephone at a point below and adjacent the dial and an electric lampmounted on such projection supplies illumination to the dial and isadapted to be connected with an available power and lighting circuit bya conductor cord extending from the structure.

Still another object of our invention is to provide an improvedilluminating device for dial telephones comprising a structure adaptedto receive the telephone thereon and having a portion projecting beyondthe telephone base and carrying an electric lamp for supplyingillumination to the dial, and in which the structure has a recess shapedto receive the base of the telephone and to hold the same againstrelative turning with the dial thereof in position to be illuminated bythe electric lamp.

A further object of our invention is to provide an improved telephoneilluminating device, of the type referred to, which has a recess adaptedto receive the base of the telephone and a forwardly extendingprojection for supporting a pad or book, and in which an electric lampmounted on such projection between the recess and pad support is adaptedto supply illumination both to 5 the dial and the pad support.

Our invention may be further briefly summarized as consisting of certainnovel combinations and arrangement of parts hereinafter described andmore particularly set out in the appended 10 claims.

In the accompanying sheets of drawings,

Fig. 1 is a top plan view showing one embodiment of our illuminatingdevice with a telephone thereon;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the illuminating de-' vice and telephone;

Fig. 3 is a front elevation of such device and telephone;

Fig. 4 is a side elevation showing another form of our illuminatingdevice in which the pad support or book rest has been omitted;

Fig. 5 is a partial front elevation showing another form of ourtelephone illuminating device in which an automatically operating switchis provided for controlling the electric lamp.

Fig. 6 is partial side elevation, with portions broken away, showing ourilluminating device adapted for use with a telephone having a circularbase; and

Fig. '7v is a side elevation, partly in section, showing the structureformed of molded material and with the lamp casing as an integral partthereof.

More detailed reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings indescribing our invention and although we have shown what we now regardto be the preferred forms of the invention, it should be understood,however, that the invention may be embodied in still other forms ofconstruction and devices of this character.

In Figs. 1, 2 and 3 of the drawings, we show our illuminating device IIIwith a telephone I2 thereon. Although our illuminating device may beused with various different telephones of the type having a base orstandard, in this instance we show the telephone I2 as being a dialphone of the cradle type.

The telephone I2 may have a base or standard I3 with a cradle I 4thereon for removably supporting a hand set I5. The base I3 may alsohave a dial unit or calling device I6 mounted thereon at the front ofthe telephone. The hand set I5 may be of the usual form andconstruction, that 'in adjacent relation to the lamp 2'! and the ilis tosay, it may comprise an intermediate handle portion I! and end portionscarrying. respectively, the receiving and transmitting elements l8 andIS. A conductor cord or cords 20 extending through an opening of thebase at the back thereof serve to connect the hand set with the base andto connect the telephone with the line.

As is usual in telephones of this type, the base 13 may have asubstantially fiat bottom 2! which is adapted to rest upon a supportingsurface and which may be covered by a protective pad or layer 2 la offelt or other yieldable material. The base l3 may have any desired shapeor outline, but for a purpose to be presently explained, is preferablyof a non-circular form such as the oval shape shown in Fig. 1.

Our illuminating device l may comprise a generally flat or tray-likebody or structure 22 which is adapted to receive the telephone l2thereon and which may have a substantially flat bottom 23 adapted torest upon any available supporting surface. The structure 22 may beformed of metal or other suitable material, or if desired, may be moldedfrom hard rubber or some other appropriate composition. This tray-likestructure may have any desired shape or outline, but is preferably of asize such that a. recess 24 can be formed therein to receive the base [3of the telephone and such that portions of the structure extend orproject beyond the base of the telephone. Such a projecting portion 25,which may be an integral part of the structure 22, extends forwardly ofthe telephone at a point below and adjacent to the dial device iii.

For supplying illumination to the calling device or dial I6, we providea hollow lamp casing 26 having an electric lamp, 21 therein and which ismounted on the forwardly projecting portion 25. The lamp casing 26 maybe of any suitable form and construction and, if desired, may beintegral with the projecting portion 25 or may be a separate partconnected therewith in any appropriate manner. This casing is preferablylateraliy elongated and may have a correspondingly elongated slot oropening 28 located to cause i1- lumination from the lamp 2'! to befocused or thrown on the dial device i6.

As mentioned above, the base i 3 of the telephone is of oval or othernon-circular form and the recess 24 of the structure 22 has a shapecorresponding with that of the telephone base. When the telephone isplaced on the illuminating device the base thereof enters the recess 24and has interfitting engagement therewith whereby the telephone is heldagainst turning relative-to the illuminating device. By thus providingan interfitting engagement between the base of the telephone and theilluminating device l0, it will be seen that when the telephone is inposition on this device it will be held with the dial device l6lumination slot 28. By reason of this cooperation between the telephonebase and the illumina-ting device, it will also be seen that the tele-.

phone can be placed on the device in only one correct position andthatthe mere placing of the telephone on the device locates the, dial l6adjacent the illumination slot 28.

The telephone I2 is preferably not connected with the illuminatingdevice ill in any wayother than. by merely resting upon this device suchthat the telephone can be removed from the liluminating device merely bya simple lifting operation. The interfitting of the basel3 in the recess24 prevents the telephone from being accidentally displaced from theilluminating de: vice.

Any suitable switch may be provided for controlling the lamp 21, forexample a simple manually operable snap-type switch 30 may be mounted inor on the structure 22 at a conveniently accessible point. In thisinstance we show the switch 30 as being mounted in a side edge of theilluminating device substantially opposite the lamp casing26, althoughany other desired portion or location may be used.

For connecting our illuminating device with a source of current weprovide a suitable conductor cord- 3l extending from the structure 22,preferably at the back thereof, and which has a plug 1 or terminalfitting 32 for connection with a receptacle or outlet of an availablepower and lighting circuit. It will be understood, of course, that thestructure 22 has passages or openings therein accommodating wires orconductors which con- 0 nect the cord 3! with the switch 30 and with thelamp 21.

If desired the structure 22 of our illuminating device may beconstructed with an extension portion 34 projecting forwardly as anextension of the portion 25. The extension portion 34 may be soconstructed and shaped as to accommodate a memorandum pad 35 thereon andalso to serve as a book rest upon which a telephone directory may besupported during use. When this projecting portion 34 is provided on thestructure 22 we also provide the lamp casing 26 with an additionalillumination slot or opening 36 at the front thereof for supplyingillumination to the pad or' to a book or the like resting on the padsup- 35 port.

It should be understood, however, that our illuminating device may beconstructed without the pad support and book rest portion 36 and,

in Fig. 4 ofthe drawings, we show the device 40 Instead of controllingthe lamp of our illuminating device by a manually operable switch asexplained above, we may provide an automatically operating controlswitch and in Fig. 5 of the drawings we have shown our illuminatingdevice 59 constructed to embody such operating control switch 31. Inother respects the illuminating device 38 of Fig. 5 is substantially thesame as that shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

an automatically In this arrangement the switch 31 may comprise a switchhousing 39 which may be formed as an integral part of thestructure 22 ormay be a separately constructed part suitably attached thereto. Theswitch is provided with a vertical movable push button 4 0 and islocated on the 60 structure 22 so that this push button will be engagedby some part of the hand set I 5, preferably the transmitting element I9thereof, when the hand set is placed in the cradle M. In the form of ourilluminating device having the automatic switch 31 the conductor cord 3|preferably connects with the device through the housing of the switch31. When the hand set I5 is removed from the cradle, as is necessarypreparatory to proper operation of the dial IS, the push button 40' willbe released and the resulting actuation of the switch 3'! will causecurrent to be supplied to the lamp 21. l

. Although the recess of our illuminating device ispreferably'non-circular in shape, such as oval or rectangular, so as toprevent relative turning between the device and the telephone, we mayconstruct the device with a circular recess 4| as shown in Fig. 6 whenit is to be used with an older style of telephone having a circular base42. In this form of our device the recess 4| may be provided withprojecting means, such as the dowel pins 43, which extend into andcooperate with the base of the telephone for holding the latter with itsdial substantially opposite the electric light 44.v

In Fig. 7 we show a construction in which the illuminating device 45 isa unitary molded structure formed of Bakelite, or other suitablecomposition, and in which an integrally molded hollow portion 46 of thedevice forms a housing for the electric lamp 41. In this constructionthe lamp housing may have an opening 48 therein located to throw lighton the dial unit 49 and a second opening in the bottom thereof which isclosed by a plate 50. The lamp 41 may be mounted on this plate bysuitable bracket means 5| or the like to thereby provide an assemblysuch that when theplate is applied to the structure to close the bottomopening the lamp will be inserted into its housing and located in theproper position therein.

From the foregoing description and accompanying drawings it will now bereadily understood that we have provided an improved telephoneillumlnating device which is of simple and economical construction, butnevertheless having a neat and attractive appearance. It will also beseen that our illuminating device requires no connection with thetelephone and is so arranged that interfltting engagement between thebase of the telephone and the device holds the telephone againstaccidental displacement and locates the same with the dial deviceadjacent the electric- 40 lamp.

While we have illustrated and described our improved construction fortelephone illuminating devices in a somewhat detailed manner, it shouldbe understood that we do not wish to be limited to the precisearrangement and construction herein disclosed but regard our inventionas including such changes and modifications as do not involve adeparture from the spirit of the invention and scope of the appendedclaims.

Having thus described our invention we claim:

1. In combination with a telephone having a base and dial unit thereon,an illuminating device comprising a structure formed of molded materialand having integrally united portions, one of which is adapted toreceive the telephone thereon and the other of which is hollow andadapted to receive an electric lamp therein, said hollow portion havingan opening in the bottom thereof, and a cover adapted to close suchopening and having an electric lamp mounted thereon.

2. A combined stand and illuminating device for a telephone of the typehaving a baseand a dial unit thereon, comprising a tray-like structureformed of non-metallic molded insulating material adapted to receive thetelephone thereon and having a generally flat bottom adapted to rest ona supporting surface, one portion of said structure having in the topthereof a shallow recess of a size and shape to receive the base of thetelephone to prevent accidental lateral shifting 'therebetween but thetelephone being otherwise unconnected with the structure, said structurehaving another portion projecting laterally beyond the telephone basebelow the dial unit thereof and elongated to extend across in front ofthe dial unit, such other portion being formed as a molded integralhollow extension of said one portion, a lamp casing on saidother portionand being, at least in part, formed as an integral molded portion ofsaid hollow extension, an electric lamp, and means mounting said lamp insaid casing in a position to supply illumination to said dial unit.

WILLIAM C. SWALLEY. ARTHUR J. LIGHTING.

